Gratsu Drabbles
by Supernova888
Summary: A compilation of any drabble or other short writing I publish to my tumblr, megaobsessions, relating to Gratsu. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Tree

Natsu would always regret taking the long way to the guild that day. Because Natsu had nothing better to do, he had decided to take a route through the forest to the guild instead. It was quite a pretty sight, actually - fall had come to Magnolia, and golden leaves had begun to speckle the array of trees lining the forest. He was very pleased with his decision up until when he heard a familiar voice.

"Natsu?" The pinket heard the voice utter with a hushed tone. It seemed to be coming up from above. Swirling his head around to the source of the sound, scarf whipping around his neck, he looked to see Gray staring back at him from the top of a tree.

"Oh, thank god," Gray said under his breath, a look of relief washing over his face. He was standing atop the highest branch in the tree, near 40 feet in the air, clinging to the trunk of the tree with a death grip.

"What're you doing up there?" asked Natsu with genuine, childlike curiosity that only Natsu could possess. Gray grunted as he hung his head.

"I've never climbed a tree before… so I wanted to try it."

"And?"

"Well... I... can't get down." Natsu burst out laughing.

"You don't know how to climb a tree!? What, are you expecting me to escort you down by the hand, ice princess?"

"Listen, flame brain; just because you were raised like an animal doesn't mean I was."

"Oh? Would you rather I go get Erza to help you down?"

"NO! Uh, no. Please?" Natsu rolled his eyes.

"I don't have Happy with me. He's out on a fishing trip, remember?"

"Do _something_!"

"Well, if you're not going to ask nicely…"

"...I bet you can't even climb this high." Oh, that was it. Accepting the challenge, Natsu effortlessly bounded up the tree. With perfect reflexes, he jumped from branch to branch, holding on to various branches as he ascended, rustling the leaves on each branch furiously as he climbed.

"There!" He proclaimed once he'd reached the branch that Gray was on, beaming triumphantly. "And don't you dare challenge me to something that easy again." Up close, he could see now that Gray really was terrified. His knuckles, gripping the tree trunk, were as white as the whites of his eyes, which were showing very clearly. He looked like he was close to trembling.

"Gray?"

"Shut up. This is pathetic of me."

"No, Gray! You're just…" Natsu trailed off, half searching for the right word and half in surprise that he was trying to comfort the bastard. "...you," Natsu settled, hoping to recover from such an out-of-character moment.

"Such a way with words," Gray said sarcastically, managing to roll his eyes despite his terror.

"Well, I doubt I can carry you down without you freaking out. I'll go get someone," Natsu said, turning away from Gray, about to descend the tree once more.

"NO! I mean, thank you, flame brain, but I don't want to be alone." Rolling his eyes, Natsu made a grunt of consent.

"So what'd you expect us to do? Just stay here until someone walks by?" Gray smiled sheepishly.

* * *  
A few hours later, someone did happen to walk by, who offered to call the fire department. Much to Gray's protest, one lost argument later resulted in the Magnolia firefighters were stationed underneath the tree, climbing up a ladder. At this point, a small crowd of Fairy Tail members had gathered beneath the tree to see what the commotion was all about. Descending the ladder, the crowd went up in a roar, asking Gray and Natsu what had happened.

"It was crazy," Natsu started, shouting it so the entire crowd could hear. "We were just walking by when suddenly a huge swarm of some kind of monster was chasing us! We had no idea what had hit us so we just climbed up the tree. We eventually realized we couldn't get down, because…" During Natsu's explanation, Lucy managed to pull Gray aside.

"Natsu's making stuff up, isn't he?"

"N-no!" Gray protested, put on the spot. Lucy shot him a look of disbelief.

"Yes," He admitted, hanging his head in defeat.

"I didn't know you were so afraid of heights! It doesn't seem like you. And Natsu stayed up there with you? That seems even less like Natsu…"

"Today's been weird, Lucy. Don't question things."

"Wait… you have ice make magic. Couldn't you just form an ice slide?" Gray felt the air getting hot as he searched for an explanation. He looked up at the sky, but alas, the sun was still hidden behind the trees. Why was the air so warm all of a sudden?

Lucy looked at him with a sudden look of understanding.

"Ah, I see what's happening. I'll leave you to catch up with Natsu." Lucy turned away, grinning from ear to ear, and headed off back to the guild. Gray stood there, perplexed at Lucy's comment. Suddenly, all was clear to him when Natsu came up from behind him and put his arm around his neck.

"Jeez, they're all practically stoning us for getting attacked by magic-neutralizing monsters, Gray! You'd expect our guild members to be more empathetic." Natsu gave him a juvenile wink for emphasis. "By the way, Gray, your face is all red. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, starting for the guild. He was alarmingly unresistant to Natsu's arm around his neck, as for the first time, the dragon slayer's arms weren't trying to put him in a headlock.

"Just fine."


	2. Chapter 2: Bike Ride

Natsu knew it was a horrible idea, but Natsu was Natsu. He knew he shouldn't have gone to school with a terrible cold, and he knew he shouldn't have trusted himself riding a bike home after being dismissed while sneezing, stuffy, and sick to his stomach. It wasn't like transportation was going to help the latter. Still, Natsu was Natsu.

He reflected on this while sampling concrete, face planted on the sidewalk at the foot of a hill, body sprawled out in a position too dramatic for the severity of the fall. Breathing a long sigh, he attempted to get up. But alas, his arm, bloody and weak from the effects of his cold, failed him. He flopped to the ground in temporary defeat. Of course, this failure made Natsu more resolute to get himself up. What followed was a series of grunts that accompanied a rhythm of rising and falling so fast that Natsu could've been doing push-ups. After a short time, he gave up and flopped to the ground once more. As he quieted, he could hear a soft laugh behind him.

"Need a hand?" said a familiar voice behind him, cocky with an underlying tone of concern. Natsu's heartbeat quickened our of fear as he guessed who the voice belonged to.

 _Please,_ he said to himself. _Don't let it be Gray._ Gray Fullbuster had been Natsu's rival since kindergarten. Whatever one could do, the other could do better. Gray beat Natsu in the finals of the first grade spelling bee, on the word "rivalry," no less. Natsu had reigned victorious over Gray in 6th grade cross-country, Gray stumbling on a rock right before the finish line. They always seemed to do the same things, and they were always competing with one another. They'd even applied to the same colleges recently.

Natsu's heart nearly exploded in humiliation when he suddenly felt a cold hand touch his shoulder. Defeated, he allowed the hand to help lift himself up. Head hanging heavy, he faced the black-haired owner of the hand and muttered,

"Thanks." He proceeded to go into a loud coughing fit, startling the man before him. He then went over to his bike, lying on a stranger's lawn, and began to try and prop it back up.

"What're you doing, stupid?" Gray chided. "You're not getting back on that thing."

"What am I supposed to do? Walk the full mile home when don't have the strength to pick myself up?" Gray bit his lip in nervous contemplation for a second before speaking.

"Screw it. I'll carry you home."

"You'll _what_?"

"Look at the sidewalk!" Gray gestured toward the concrete, stained red in large blots from Natsu's drying blood. "I'm not letting you walk home when you hurt yourself that badly. I may hate your guts, but I'm not inhuman. I'd say you'd do the same for me but I doubt you'd be able to carry me more than two feet."

"Is that a challenge?" Natsu said eagerly, hobbling up to Gray with a devilish grin.

"Not _now_ , you idiot! The last thing you need is to drop me and crush yourself. Now come on!"

Natsu grimaced. He was about to rebut in protest when Gray scooped him up and placed Natsu on his back, fireman's carry-style.

"Gray!" Natsu screamed in protest. "What the hell!? Put me down!"

"Is your dad home?" Gray asked, avoiding Natsu's shrieking.

"No, he's on a business trip, as usual. Now put me _down,_ you bastard!" Natsu sneezed on Gray.

"Ok, you're coming to my house. You're too senseless to leave alone."

"I will not hesitate to blow my snot on you, you freak."

"You're so welcome for my help, Natsu!"

Natsu wanted to put up even more of a fight, but everything hurt. Gray's hands gripped Natsu's arms and legs tightly, causing the now-forming bruises to shoot pain through his nerves. From what Natsu could see, blood was trickling down Gray's (of course, bare, the pervert) chest, tinting lines of red in his skin. His main priority being making the pain stop, Natsu let himself go limp on Gray's back. His eyes closed as he entered a land of woozy limbo, half expecting to start dreaming but still feeling the dull pain against his limbs to the rhythm of Gray's walking.

The next time Natsu opened his eyes, he was being slammed onto the guest bed at Gray's house.

"Don't move," Gray ordered, turning around and moving into the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom. He came back with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, gauze, tape, and paper towels.

"The hell is that?" Natsu asked with disgust, soon having this question answered with the sting of hydrogen peroxide that Gray was applying around his cuts.

"If you hadn't failed chemistry, you may have remembered," Gray muttered against Natsu's cries of pain. Gray eventually stood up again, half frustrated and half concerned.

"How do you feel?"

"It stings." Gray rolled his eyes.

"Want me to kiss it?" he said mockingly, bending down and puckering his lips over one of Natsu's bigger cuts on his leg. Unable to stop his momentum in time, Gray ended up pressing his lips right into Natsu's pool of blood. Gray immediately straightened himself and they both exchanged horrified glances. They both stood transfixed in terror for a good thirty seconds. Then, without a word, Gray began to press gauze down onto Natsu's cuts, sweating from the awkwardness. After another five silent minutes of pressing gauze and taping it, Natsu finally spoke up:

"Um, you missed a cut underneath my chin."

"Damn, only you could manage to get a cut there," Gray said, exhaling and trying to slip back into the tone the conversation had before the incident. He used his finger to prop up Natsu's chin, pressing and taping the last patch of leaking blood.

"There, are we done?" Gray asked Natsu, finger still tilting Natsu's head to look him straight in the eyes. Natsu hesitated for a second before extending his head forward.

Before either of them knew what was happening, some of Natsu's only nerves not plagued by pain were dazzled by the chill of gentle winter's wind enveloping them, and Gray's the warmth that encompassed his skin liked a freshly dried blanket. Natsu immediately turned away, moaning in self-disgust.

"What did I just do?" he cried out despondently.

"Something I never had the balls to," said the familiar voice behind him once again, this time completely comforting - it almost sounded like it'd been liberated, able to speak without a veneer of spite corrupting its purity.

Natsu turned back in amazement, speechless. Eventually, the both of them allowed their utter shock to morph into content smiles.

"You know, Natsu, my parents are gone for the weekend…"

"...And I definitely don't think I can walk home tonight."

"Right! So, if you need to stay here, I suppose I can allow that."

"And aren't people with suspected concussions supposed to have people stay in bed with them the first night? For safety measures?"

"You got a C in biology for a reason, flame brain. But I can stay with you if it'd make you feel better." Gray's eyes narrowed. "And if I stay in bed with you, you'd better hope you don't have a concussion."

"Trust me, ice princess, you'll have a concussion when I'm through with you."

The doorbell to Natsu's house rang. He immediately began beaming and bolted from the couch, but remembered himself halfway through the trek to the door and began to walk as nonchalantly as he could manage.

"Hey," said the raven-haired figure standing in the door as he opened it. "How're you feeling?"

"Much better," the pinket responded. "The cuts are starting to heal nicely."

"So, why'd you ask me to come over?" Natsu led Gray into the kitchen.

"Well, my dad told me over the phone that I had to do something for you for helping me. So.. ta da!" He exclaimed, bursting the doors open to the dining room to reveal a buffet laid out across the table.

"Thanks for your help," Natsu said in a slightly endearing manner, eyes now narrowing, "Especially with keeping me on bedrest." The both ate and talked small talk, eventually leading to the topic of school.

"Oh, I got a college acceptance letter today!" Gray exclaimed.

"I did too!" Natsu proclaimed equally as eagerly. In their excitement, they both blurted out the names of the colleges they'd gotten into, echoing the same word in perfect harmony.

After all they'd competed with one another throughout their lives, they'd come to live by the rule that there could only be one. And truly that day, they did become one, and from that moment on they would never be separated.


	3. Chapter 3: Waiting

It was hard to believe that this was going to be one of the last times the entire grade was going to be together. It was the end-of-the-year party for the seniors of Magnolia High, hosted at none other than the house of Laxus Dreyar. The house's atmosphere was an odd mix of solemn and spirited as the students all attempted to forget the fact that their tight-knit class was going to be separated soon. Smell-wise, acrid fumes suggestive of spirits permeated the house, emanating from suspicious red cups.

Almost every single senior was present at the party. Cana was sitting in the corner of the living room with a scowl, red cups littered around her, grumbling about how uncivilized everyone was acting, Lucy was talking with Mirajane and Erza at a table toward the wall, and everyone else formed a general blob of bodies in the center of the room. The crowd in the center was creating a halfhearted rave, and amazingly, no-one had gotten into a fight yet. The vibe was undeniably that of smiling at a funeral. If you really want to fake it, you can create a thin veneer of happiness, but it can only partially cover such glaring melancholy.

And out of all the guests' feigned frivolity, the person who was doing the worst job with it had to be Natsu Dragneel. The pinket stood at the edge of the crowd, his lips forced into a small, pained smirk, his eyes fixed on the floor. He occasionally shifted his weight or took a step to seem to be invested in the music, but it was clear that his mind was elsewhere.

Noticing his cafard, Lucy excused herself from her table (which was probably a good idea anyway, since Erza was running out of strawberry cake) and stood up to approach him.

"Natsu!" she called out to him over the music. Her friend swiveled around and looked up at her with sad eyes.

"Come on and sit down and talk with us," she offered, "You don't look like you're having much fun."

"No thanks," Natsu responded glumly, looking down and beginning to turn away. Lucy advanced at this refusal, worried.

"What's wrong?"

"There's so much I wanted to do before high school ended. Now I know I wasted the little time I had." Natsu had now fully turned away and was staring blankly at the opposite end of the room, almost unnoticeably scanning the room with his eyes, as if looking for someone.

"Like what? You've always seemed pretty content."

"I don't know. Something just feels… empty, ya know? I just can't believe it's over."

"Well, forget about that! Come sit with us and have some fun. This isn't like you to be such a stick in the mud."

"Lucy, please."

"Come on, you can't actually be this upset! You're Natsu!"

"Lucy, _please._ " Shocked at the discrepancy between normal Natsu and Natsu now, Lucy tacitly walked back to her table, where Erza was now whimpering incoherently about strawberry cake over an empty plate. _Maybe he just needs some alone time,_ she thought, still feeling that Natsu wanting to be alone was too foreign to be a reality.

Meanwhile, Natsu was still silently scanning the crowd of people. _The jerk has to be here somewhere,_ he thought to himself. _He must be just as messed up as I am right now._ He eventually spotted the mop of jet-black hair he was searching for, but sporting a broad smile and having the time of his life. Natsu couldn't even take solace in the fact that his rival was in the same boat as he was, which made the pinket all the more despondent. _Why do I care?_ Natsu thought. _The guy gets on my every nerve anyway. Screw him if he's happy. Right?_ He bit his lip in emotional contemplation, his heart racing and every muscle slowly becoming transfixed.

With the most inopportune timing, the DJ started playing a song that threw all the teenagers back to their middle school years: "Animal" by Neon Trees. Natsu bit his lip harder, not sure if he was about to scream or cry. All he knew was that all of his insides were doing acrobatics and all of his muscles were tense, threatening to unleash something at any moment. This wasn't aided by the lyrics blaring throughout the room:

"Oh, oh, I want some more," the song taunted, reverberating in his head.

"What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Say goodbye to my heart tonight."

Natsu was physically shaking at this point. Without warning, he darted from his fixed position and clumsily weaved through the crowd of people, making his way to the sliding glass door at the opposite end of the room. When he finally reached it after several bumps and collisions, he darted through it in a panic into the dark of the night. After he'd run halfway through the Dreyars' backyard, his legs gave way and he fell to his knees. With shaky arms and breath, he instinctively reached into his pockets. Finding a crumpled paper in one and a familiar metal box in the other, he took them out and drew them in front of his face. After fumbling with the latter for a second, he eventually heard a small spark go off and beheld a yellow flame dancing in front of his eyes. He could already feel his muscles starting to relax as he coaxed the paper closer. Entranced, he felt the clenching feeling of pain being replaced with that of pleasure as the flame jumped onto the paper and began consuming it. The paper curled and charred as the flame waved in front of his eyes, growing ever taller as the smoke spiralled around its edge, and the pinket closed his eyes in a wave of relief and bliss. He stayed like this for a moment, feeling the warmth pulse around his fingers, until a voice startled him from behind.

"What the _hell_ are you doing!?" the voice of Gray Fullbuster demanded behind the boy.

Natsu jumped as he snapped his eyes open. He stared at the now half-burned paper, but couldn't bring himself to look at the figure looming behind him. Nonetheless, he devolved into a fit of whimpering and hyperventilating as he doubled over in agony.

His inquirer took a step back in shock. _Is Natsu Dragneel really on the verge of crying? In front of_ me, _no less?_ With uncharacteristic compassion for his rival that shocked Gray himself, he awkwardly shuffled over to the boy hyperventilating over a lighter and put his hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay," he reassured in a low tone, bending down to Natsu's level. "Everything is going to be okay."

"No it won't," Natsu managed to choke out in between labored breaths. "There's so much more I could've done…" The painful admission finally made the boy begin to sob.

"There, there," Gray murmured with a twinge of nervousness, putting both of his arms around the pinket in a panicked attempt to comfort him.

"And now you know I'm a fuckin' pyro," Natsu sputtered bitterly, trying to break himself from the arms around him. Gray perked up at the mention of this, noticing that the paper had sagged to the ground and was now spreading the fire to the grass. He hurriedly got up and ran around Natsu, proceeding to stamp out the fire in a frenzy. Having accomplished this, he bent down again, facing Natsu.

"You probably hate me even more now, right?" the pinket whimpered, head still bent in shame.

"I don't hate you," Gray soothed, putting his hand on Natsu's kneecap. "What more did you want to do that's bothering you so much?" Natsu finally looked up at this.

"I… I…" He searched, staring into Gray's eyes, his own still filled with tears.

With that, Gray knew what Natsu was struggling to realize. He'd been waiting four long years for this moment and jumped at the opportunity, now that it was here. He leaned in, brushed away his rival's tears, and let their lips touch. His lips grew hot, most likely from his own embarrassment and the wetness of Natsu's face from his warm tears, but Gray imagined that the pyro had a fire burning within him that he could feel the warmth of through his lips. After a few moments, Gray pulled back.

Natsu's facial expressions contorted to a comic degree, shifting between joy, anger, disgust, and awe. Gray couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked with as much false confidence as he could muster, hoping he wouldn't live to regret what he'd just done.

Natsu's face finally settled on a blank expression with pursed lips, cheeks quickly starting to flush.

"Well… it's a start," he mused carefully, giving a sheepish smile, a lone tear still travelling down his face.

"Come here, flame-brain," Gray said endearingly. Natsu barely had time to roll his eyes before he was tackled by his enemy, and he at last felt a new, more comforting warmth pulse around his fingers.

It took four years, but there was finally nothing left that the two were waiting for.


	4. Chapter 4: Oblivious

Let me just preface this by saying I _hate_ Natsu Dragneel. Well, I don't _hate_ him, he's just super freaking annoying. Maybe it's just better to leave it at, "It's complicated."

Did I really just mention Natsu and "complicated" in the same sentence?

Either way, this has been going on for a few months now. Since I found out that I, uh, didn't quite hate the guy I've been fighting every day in the school parking lot since kindergarten, I mean. You know, for a guy that's willing to try and beat the living crap out of me, he's remarkably nice outside of that. And stupidly naive and unobservant to boot.

You'd think he would have picked up on what I'm doing by now. I'm suddenly remarkably clumsy around him - perhaps when we're passing each other in the hallways of our school, I drop a pen that just so happens to roll at his feet, for example. He hands it back and our eyes meet, if only for a second. A smile tugs at my lips, not wanting to give too much away, I subtly smirk at him as he walks away. Wash, rinse, repeat, as often as possible for three whole months.

That's not where it ends, though - I got so bold as to try and ask him out on Valentine's Day. Indirectly, of course, and not without encouragement from my friend Lucy, but it was much less subtle than my other advances. During math class, I manage to slip a sheet of paper with my number and name on it into his bag. Granted, he already has my number, but if anything, that should've been more of a hint to him. Eventually the bell rings and, with chest still pounding, I make sure to place myself right in front of him as the class is filing out the door. He taps me roughly on the shoulder. My heart now practically pounding out of my chest, I turn around and he says to me:

"Hey Gray, you dropped your scrap math work into my backpack. Figured you wanted it back." He hands me back my 'subtraction problem' with his characteristic toothy grin and walks away, leaving me momentarily stunned. My heart sinks, and I can't tell if it's from his adorable smile or his astonishing stupidity.

Thankfully, however, my prayers were answered a few days ago when I received a text from a certain subtraction equation.

"Hey Gray. I'm bored. Netflix and chill?"

I've never grasped a phone so tightly in all of my life. It was as if I were to let go of the phone, I'd let go of the golden opportunity somehow; like I'd look back down and realize that I'd dreamt the message. After a few moments of pondering my very existence, I came to terms with the fact that Natsu and I were finally going to happen. I would've like to start out slower, but relieving three months of seemingly one-sided sexual tension wasn't a bother to me, and if this was how Natsu was going to go on a date with me, I'd take it.

"Sure," I text back with tense hands.

"Cool, come over to my place. Bring food."

And so, half an hour later, I'm inside Natsu's house. He beckons for me to join him on the couch when I come in.

"I was going to do this with Lucy or Erza, but neither of them are home," Natsu states, answering the question of why the invitation was so sudden. I'm shocked at such a casual response, but it doesn't surprise me that much that Natsu could be so casual about something like this. And I can understand him swinging that way, too.

"So… What movie should we watch?" Natsu asks excitedly, remote in hand. I shrug.

"I don't know, is there something you had in mind?"

"Everyone's been saying I should watch 'Saving Private Ryan.' Have you seen it?" I shake my head.

"No. You realize that's a war movie, right?"

"Yeah. So?" I think I'm finding out more about Natsu's interests than I would care to know on the first date. But I don't want to screw anything up, so I consent.

During one of the less intense parts of the movie, I quickly put my arm around Natsu and attempt to pull him close, wanting to be a bit romantic before the gore starts again. Natsu looks surprised, but he makes no attempt to pull away, and his expression returns to normal after a second or two. Finally, the classic move happens: both of our hands reach into the popcorn bowl simultaneously. I grasp his in mine and let them linger, his hand still fidgeting for kernels. He turns to me as soon as I grab his hand, and without taking the time to register the expression on his face, I dive in for a quick peck on the cheek.

Immediately Natsu's face shifts from what I now recognize to be confusion to outrage.

"What the hell!?" He screams, jumping off the couch. "Do you _want_ to get punched, princess?"

Any other time one of us would do something stupid to upset the other, I'd jump at the chance to fight Natsu. But at this moment, the world collapses around me. Natsu, in his infinite wisdom of pop culture, was using a popular phrase to invite me to watch a movie _as a friend_. And I just blew my cover completely and he hates me for it. So I do something I've never done when confronting Natsu - run.

He chases after me, and, knowing his house better than I do, is on my tail the entire time, pinning me to the wall once I make a futile attempt to open the front door.

"You're not going _anywhere_ until I get an explanation!" He shouts in my face, still wearing a shocked expression.

I go limp and let my head hang in despair. I slowly muster the strength to look up at the pinket, and I stammer out, "Natsu. I… like you."

Natsu slowly calms down and his face soothes into a blank, neutral expression. Time slows to a crawl, and gradually, Natsu's expression change subtly, and I swear I see a glint in his emerald eyes. His expression shows that something's clicking with him, and, operating on instinct in classic Natsu fashion, he aggressively turns his pinning into a giant hug.

"I think I do, too," he says, buried in my chest. He sounds like this is the first time he's grasping the concept - figures he would be oblivious even of his own emotions.

"You know," he says, releasing me from his grasp, "I haven't done a movie marathon in a long time. Would you care to, uh, Netflix and chill with me for a while?"

"All I can say is you better cuddle better than you hug, ash-for-brains."

"You're on."


	5. Chapter 5: Insomnia

It all started when Gray's apartment complex was fumigated for an insect problem they'd been having. He had been told that he couldn't sleep there that night, so he'd need to find someone to stay with. He was on his last portion of jewel, getting ready to take another job, so he couldn't afford to stay in a hotel for the night. Erza lived in an all-girls' dorm and Lucy's apartment was way too small for a second person, so he had to go with the option he dreaded most - staying with Natsu.

"You seriously don't have enough money to stay someplace else?" Natsu complained.

"Well, not since _somebody_ caused us all to have to give half our payments up in damages," Gray shot back. "It's not like I'm enjoying this, either."

There was a moment of silence until Natsu declared suddenly, "Ok. We fight for who gets the hammock and who gets the floor."

"What?"

"You're the guest! You play by my rules!"

Enraged by Natsu's lack of hospitality, Gray showed his consent by tackling Natsu onto the ground. 20 minutes later, with frost bitten walls and singed carpets, Gray was victorious through his sheer annoyance toward the pinket.

When night had fell and all the candles were put out, Natsu and Gray both settled into their respective places in the room. Natsu was just about ready to plunge into dreamland, eyes heavy with sleep, until he heard a slight moan come from above him.

 _Damn, I must have really done a number on Gray,_ Natsu thought triumphantly. _I knew he couldn't handle me. I'm still the stronger of the two of us!_

Natsu's ego trip was interrupted by a second moan, much louder and higher pitched this time. He started to wonder if he should wake Gray up if hurt that badly. This decision solidified for a much different reason when he heard the third thing to come out of the ice mage's mouth:

"Harder, Natsu!"

Fist engulfed in flames, Natsu instinctively bounded up off the floor and punched Gray in the chest on the hammock. Startled, Gray flailed on the hammock and let out a slight scream.

"What the _hell_ , Natsu!?" Gray yelled angrily as soon as he had fully shaken himself from sleep. Natsu quickly fell back down onto the floor and covered his face with his scarf, feeling his cheeks get hot.

"Uh, you keep talking in your sleep and it's getting damn annoying! Cut it out!" Natsu stammered, embarrassment now replacing his initial anger. Gray's eyes widened ever so slightly, giving the tacit indication that he was slowly realizing what Natsu may have heard. After a second of pause, Gray unconfidently spat back,

"Shut up and let me sleep, ash-for-brains."

Within a few minutes, Gray was fast asleep once again. Natsu, unable to fall asleep right away from the shock, decided to have a bit of fun.

"Don't stop, Gray!" Natsu panted quietly. Gray responded with a moan. Natsu kept this up until Gray nearly screamed in pleasure and proceeded to calm down. When his breathing returned to normal, Natsu barely picked up what Gray muttered under his breath, even with his sharp hearing:

"I love you, flame-brain."

"I love you, too," Natsu whispered passionately, the banter so natural that Natsu didn't even realize what he had said until after he'd uttered it.

To this day, Natsu will still make over-exaggerated noises whenever his newfound lover gets sleepy, earning him a customary punch in the stomach and kiss on the forehead.


	6. Chapter 6: Crushed Ice (Poetry)

I've always loved the spark in your soul,

The fire that melts my core, so cold;

The glint in your eye when we playfully fight,

The smile that shines and brightens the night.

Never can your searing spirit be lost,

Not when foliage fertile turns to frost;

Not when kisses and punches on our balcony place;

Not when you solace and strangle me in your embrace;

Not when on the rail of the balcony you sit;

Not when rough hands do wander and fingers do flit;

Not when fondness and fighting make you scream frantic, "Stop!"

Not when ice, stories down, you lay broken atop.

Not when blood starts to seep into frosty cracks,

Taunting my hastily heated attacks;

Not as your temperature, rime melting, cease,

And I refreezing it, down on my knees;

Not when your eyes then start to dullen and glaze,

Or when mine in my mortification the same;

Not when I scream, "Help!" into winter night bitter,

Or when I feel your heartbeat's final flitter;

Not when I race up to the rail once again,

Cursing the courtship of two so crushed men;

But your spirit persists as I lay now with you, stark,

And I hope I will follow it into the dark.


End file.
